Small businesses are the celebrities of the web. It’s a little known fact, but Australians are actually searching more for builders than they are for Miranda Kerr and more for florists than they are for Julia Gillard (or at least, they were until the remarkable events of last week). That’s because Australians are spending more time online than ever before and more time online than any other media including TV. We’re increasingly going online to find out about products and businesses. According to Research International, more than 80 per cent of all Australians research products online.

These are all really compelling reasons for businesses to get online yet the majority of small businesses aren’t stepping into the spotlight like the celebrities that they are. A study from Research International showed that of the 1.6 million businesses in Australia with less than 20 employees, three quarters (74%) do not have a stand alone website and 40% do not use the Internet or email for business. With almost near saturation of Australians with access to the Internet and with the upcoming roll out of ubiquitous high speed broadband, it’s vital that businesses of all sizes are able to participate in the digital economy.

There are some shining stars. According to the Research International study, while only one in four Australian small businesses have ventured online with a website, those that market online are more likely to track the return on investment of their advertising spend and are looking to increase the proportion of their advertising spend online this year, with AdWords seeing the greatest growth. Small businesses listed the following reasons for increasing their AdWords budgets: easy to calculate return on investment, effective at reaching a large audience, suitable channel for building brand in the marketplace, and great channel to help acquire new customers.

So, if you’re a small business and you want to be found, where do you begin? The great news is that it’s easier than ever to strut your stuff on the red carpet. You don’t need a website to be found online - you can have a web presence with local business listings like Google Places. One in five searches on Google is related to location and people come to Maps to find types of businesses. They might search for cafe Fremantle or hairdresser Surry Hills. Google Places literally puts your business on the map. Anyone can list their business for free, you can provide information for your customers such as hours of operation, contact info, photos, videos, parking info, product offerings and you can manage your business listing with a personalised dashboard. We’ll even show your business in Google Search as well.